| Medical lab equipment may be the most expensive lab | | | | 99 percent of micro-organisms, there is always a |
| equipment to keep on hand. Laboratory rules and state | | | | chance--however slim--that a re-used item could be |
| laws strictly govern the handling, storage, and disposal | | | | contaminated. In the interest of malpractice costs and |
| of biological materials. Most scalpels, vials, and other | | | | professional ethics, anything that touches a patient will |
| tools for taking samples can only be used once, and | | | | usually be thrown out. Medical labs minimize waste |
| must be properly disposed of after coming into | | | | from this practice by making parts interchangeable. For |
| contact with blood or other bodily fluids. | | | | example, only a scalpel blade is tossed, while the |
| Equipment in a medical lab can be divided into two | | | | handle is kept for a new blade. |
| categories: one-use items, and larger machines. The | | | | The remainder of hospital lab equipment is larger |
| one-use items are syringes, scalpels, vials, and anything | | | | machines that do not actually come into contact with |
| else that cannot be used on more than one person, or | | | | body tissue or fluids. This includes centrifuges, |
| even for more than one sample. While these items are | | | | spectrophotometers, and other devices necessary for |
| functional after one use, they pose great risk of | | | | the analysis of microbiological agents. Machines of this |
| cross-contamination. This could result in tests giving a | | | | nature must be regularly cleaned and sterilized, but do |
| wrong result, or in the worst scenario, infecting another | | | | not pose any risk of contaminating other samples with |
| patient. | | | | re-use. |
| While most sterilization processes do kill upwards of | | | | |